Local government has a major impact on life in Lake County.It decides whether property taxes will be raised. If roads will be repaved. Whether residents must shell out more cash to use libraries and parks.By voting, residents have some say in how their local government works. In Lake County, four cities and two towns will hold elections Nov. 7.Leesburg, Lady Lake, Clermont, Umatilla and Minneola will have elections for candidates for city commissions and town councils.Umatilla voters also can decide whether their elected leaders should serve longer terms.

On a hot Sunday in July, it's nice to cool off mentally, reflecting on a snowy scene from February. Robert Schramm of Winter Park was visiting Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, when he spotted a lone bicycle deliveryman making his way along a town street that in the snow became one with the sidewalk. While on vacation in the alpine resort area, Schramm took advantage of the skiing while his wife says she took advantage of the shopping. Garmish-Partenkirchen was formed when two towns were merged for the 1936 Winter Olympic Games.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haitian protesters forced drivers from cars at gunpoint and blocked main highways Monday for the second time this month in an election-related dispute between two towns, police said. Heavily armed men from Cabaret blocked the highway leading north in the hours before dawn to protest a decision by election officials to give the nearby town of Arcahaie jurisdiction over the village of Boucassin. Previously, Boucassin had been divided between the two towns.

BLACKSTONE, Mass. -- Residents of two towns were ordered to stop using water from their taps after someone broke into the area's supply facility and left behind a 5-gallon container that had an odor. Authorities have ruled out terrorism, and the FBI has decided not to pursue the case, Dr. David Gifford, director of the Rhode Island Health Department, said Tuesday. The ban remained in effect while the container and water were being tested for biological or chemical contaminants, he said.

SHORTAGES CAUSE UNREST. Two towns were hit by riots over bread and sugar shortages, newspapers there reported on Wednesday. They said students in el-Obeid, capital of the western region of Kordofan, attacked offices of the regional governor Tuesday when he refused to see them. In the central region town of Sennar, southeast of Khartoum, rioters set fire to town council offices and shops and clashed with police, the papers said.

GAUHATI, India -- Police opened fire on stone-throwing students in two towns in northeastern India on Friday, killing 12 of them as they protested a government decision to shift a state education board to an area dominated by a different tribe, authorities said. More than 100 others, including 54 police, were injured in the two protests, Meghalaya state's home minister said.

A fire in a tanker containing a noxious chemical spread to a nearby wood-treating plant Thursday, destroying the plant and forcing evacuations in two towns, authorities said. No injuries were reported in the blaze, which quickly engulfed the tank truck, the Hoosier Treating Co. creosote plant and another nearby tanker truck, police said. Authorities were evacuating most of Gosport, a town of about 750 near Indianapolis.

PALM COAST -- A $440 million sale of the state's largest water utility to an entity set up by two Panhandle towns has been delayed because of court challenges to the sale, the company's parent said. The two towns, Milton and Gulf Breeze, want to buy Florida Water Services as a moneymaking venture and contend a provision in state law allows their entity to do that without regulators' approval, but the state Public Service Commission has sued to block the sale until it can rule on whether it is in the public interest.

BLACKSTONE, Mass. -- Residents of two towns were ordered to stop using water from their taps after someone broke into the area's supply facility and left behind a 5-gallon container that had an odor. Authorities have ruled out terrorism, and the FBI has decided not to pursue the case, Dr. David Gifford, director of the Rhode Island Health Department, said Tuesday. The ban remained in effect while the container and water were being tested for biological or chemical contaminants, he said.

Regarding the article "A tale of two towns" in Sunday's Insight section: I was surprised that no mention was made as to why anyone would want to visit the Hyder, Alaska, and Stewart, British Columbia, area. Just outside Hyder the National Park Service has built a 1,000-foot, protected walkway from which, during the months of August and September, you may observe bears feeding on salmon that they catch with their paws. Also the best halibut that I have ever eaten was served from the converted school bus. Mike Volentine St. Cloud

GAUHATI, India -- Police opened fire on stone-throwing students in two towns in northeastern India on Friday, killing 12 of them as they protested a government decision to shift a state education board to an area dominated by a different tribe, authorities said. More than 100 others, including 54 police, were injured in the two protests, Meghalaya state's home minister said.

Regarding the article "A tale of two towns" in Sunday's Insight section: I was surprised that no mention was made as to why anyone would want to visit the Hyder, Alaska, and Stewart, British Columbia, area. Just outside Hyder the National Park Service has built a 1,000-foot, protected walkway from which, during the months of August and September, you may observe bears feeding on salmon that they catch with their paws. Also the best halibut that I have ever eaten was served from the converted school bus. Mike Volentine St. Cloud

By Andrew Kleinfeld and Judith Kleinfeld, Special to the Sentinel, March 13, 2005

Everywhere, Americans are called "cowboys." On foreign tongues, the reference to America's Western rural laborers is an insult. Cowboys, we are told, plundered the earth, arrogantly rode roughshod over neighbors and were addicted to mindless violence. Some of us hang our heads in shame. We shouldn't. The cowboy is our Homeric hero, an archetype that sticks because there's truth in it. A few years ago, a Canadian anthropologist explained to us how different her countrymen are from Americans.

PALM COAST -- A $440 million sale of the state's largest water utility to an entity set up by two Panhandle towns has been delayed because of court challenges to the sale, the company's parent said. The two towns, Milton and Gulf Breeze, want to buy Florida Water Services as a moneymaking venture and contend a provision in state law allows their entity to do that without regulators' approval, but the state Public Service Commission has sued to block the sale until it can rule on whether it is in the public interest.

PODGORICA, Yugoslavia -- Local elections in Montenegro handed victory to the pro-Western government in the capital Podgorica today but gave its pro-Serbia opponents control of the coastal town of Herzeg Novi. Officials from the ruling coalition that has edged Montenegro away from Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslavia during the past two years admitted they were defeated in the smaller of the two towns where early polls were held Sunday. Montenegro, the only republic still left alongside Serbia in Yugoslavia, has a total population less than 1 million.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haitian protesters forced drivers from cars at gunpoint and blocked main highways Monday for the second time this month in an election-related dispute between two towns, police said. Heavily armed men from Cabaret blocked the highway leading north in the hours before dawn to protest a decision by election officials to give the nearby town of Arcahaie jurisdiction over the village of Boucassin. Previously, Boucassin had been divided between the two towns.

PODGORICA, Yugoslavia -- Local elections in Montenegro handed victory to the pro-Western government in the capital Podgorica today but gave its pro-Serbia opponents control of the coastal town of Herzeg Novi. Officials from the ruling coalition that has edged Montenegro away from Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslavia during the past two years admitted they were defeated in the smaller of the two towns where early polls were held Sunday. Montenegro, the only republic still left alongside Serbia in Yugoslavia, has a total population less than 1 million.

On a hot Sunday in July, it's nice to cool off mentally, reflecting on a snowy scene from February. Robert Schramm of Winter Park was visiting Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, when he spotted a lone bicycle deliveryman making his way along a town street that in the snow became one with the sidewalk. While on vacation in the alpine resort area, Schramm took advantage of the skiing while his wife says she took advantage of the shopping. Garmish-Partenkirchen was formed when two towns were merged for the 1936 Winter Olympic Games.

They are one now, the cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg.They remain separate on the map but in the mind-set of the area, they are now one place called Tampa Bay.The football team in Tampa is the Tampa Bay Bucs. The baseball team in St. Petersburg is the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.Tampa Brings a vibrant city to the equation. Tampa has the airport, the skyscrapers, the thriving downtown with the bankers, lawyers and deal makers.Tampa has the history with Ybor City, one of only three National Historic Landmark districs in Florida.

Mount Dora has been singled out as ''the prettiest, most quaint and most romantic small town'' in Florida by Bruce Hunt, the author of a new book, Visiting Small-Town Florida.Mount Dora is one of 39 towns profiled in the book.Hunt was impressed by Mount Dora's many parks and by what he called ''the decorated sidewalks,'' referring to trees, planters and old-fashioned park benches.Describing the town as ''storybook picturesque,'' he compares Mount Dora to Highlands, N.C., and Carmel, Calif.